Acknowledgements
The majority of the events included in this timeline were sourced from Neil Peart's excellent book, Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times, which explores Peart's personal history. Before Peart published this book, he covered part of this history in his two-part story "A Port Boy's Story" for the St. Catharines Standard, as well as in his first instructional video, A Work in Progress. For a more complete list of sources I used, see References and bibliography.
I want to thank Joe Szilagy for agreeing to answer my questions about Neil's formative years and providing early photographs. Joe played guitar with Neil in his third band The Majority, and continues to produce excellent music to this day. Joe's reflections were key to helping me understand the music scene of the late 1960s in the Niagara Peninsula.
As always, I'm indebted to the websites Cygnus-X1.net, Power Windows, and Rushisaband.com for continuing to document the current and past history of Rush and Neil Peart.
Thanks is also due to my good friend Monica Z, whom I met on the Presto tour in 1990 (March 26 to be exact!). Before the wealth of information became available on the Internet (and also before Neil Peart wrote books and released instructional DVDs), fans and collectors like Monica were the ones who documented Rush history. The foundation for the all the websites devoted to Rush today (including my own) was started by Monica and these fans. In 2004, when I was starting this website, Monica offered an incredible amount of her time, assistance, encouragement, which made all the difference. And while Monica (and her husband Steve) and I have found many other subjects to discuss, we still find time to talk about Rush.
Finally, I want to thank Neil Peart for his continued inspiration and dedication to music, drumming, and writing. As an awkward 15 year old in the early 1980s, Neil's drumming provided me with an early template for excellence. The lyrics he wrote also ignited an interest in words and love of books. And while I didn't become a professional drummer (only semi-professional), I did become a professional writer. Like a lot of fans, I continue to be inspired and entertained by Neil's work to this day.
For any questions, comments, or feedback, please send email to neilpeartnews@outlook.com.